Personality Traits of a Police Officer Policing today is very complex. Police officers are expected to be all things to all people and to make split second decisions under varying stress conditions. Police officers must be effective at what they do. The decisions made by a police officer could potentially affect the lives of many people. Being an officer of the law takes a certain quality of person and some personality types certainly do better in positions of authority than do others.
The use of police force is highly important and can make a huge difference in society. It can make an impact and affect the outcome of a situation. There are people that like the police and there are people who hate them. Regardless of what your opinion is about the use of police force, one should take into account that it is much needed. Police force protects our rights as citizens, enforces the law, and it helps shape a society to make moral and ethical decisions.
(Gray) When a crime has occurred its important to deal with it, to reduce the number of offences committed in society/ community. Fighting and solving crime involves a variety of support, the police force cannot do it on its own, and to prevent crime involves different agencies working together and local crime reduction initiatives. Initiatives find new innovative ways to especially reduce and prevent crime. Reducing crime and disorder in the community is a momentous obligation and frank aspect in every single public services and majority of community organisations; and it presents peace, protection and fairness to the community. As a research officer in crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership, my obligation is to scutiny the resources and physical in
Police departments’ effectiveness depends on its organization. Local police are assigned to areas, also known as beats, with the responsibility of maintaining order, ensuring that the law is upheld, and providing needed assistance to citizens. If communities are going to be safe to live in, then the police department must be well organized. As we continue to experience an increase in crime, police organization becomes more and more important, as it determines the police department’s effectiveness. One of the advantages of patrolling is that it gives potential criminals the fear of being caught in the act and citizens the peace of knowing that they are being protected against crime.
An integral component to the infrastructure of government is law enforcement. In recent years, police actions, particularly police abuse has come into view of a wide, public and critical eye. While citizens worry about protecting themselves from criminals, it has now been shown that they must also keep a watchful eye on those who are supposed to protect and serve. This paper will discuss the types of police abuse prevalent today, including the use of firearms and recovery of private information. I will also discuss what and how citizens’ rights are taken advantage of by the police.
Keeping the peace means providing a presence at known trouble hot spots for example city centres. A police officer will also investigate allegations of any offence that is put before them. They will use good operational knowledge to decipher if the allegations are genuine and if so, they will report the crime and have it investigated. The police also provide high visibility policing to major events like football matches etc in order to prevent incidents of any criminality. Many police services also set local priorities which largely depend on the needs of their particular area for example, the police service in rural may have a very different set of problems from police services in urban areas.
How well developed organizational policies and procedures guide the use of police employee discretion to ensure the philosophy of the department is met. Police Organizational Tasks and Policy All criminal justice agencies must have an organizational structure in place to help them function efficiently. Most modern police agencies use the organizational subsystem in conjunction with organizational principles and policies and procedures to ensure a department operates efficiently and effectively to provide police services. If there is a breakdown in the organizational structure it can disrupt the day to day operations of the department. The effects of this structural breakdown can range from poor employee morale, abuse of sick leave, high attrition rates, allegations of corruption, and distrust from the public.
Methods to prevent corruption will then be explored, such as more rigorous recruitment procedures and the reinforcement of the motivation to do what is right. Lastly, it will be explored why in fact it is so hard to reduce corruption in the police force and subsequently why it will never go away. Before it can be examined why police corruption occurs, it must first be defined, what police corruption means, as there are many widely accepted definitions. Punch as cited in Palmer (1992: 103) defines corruption as, “When an officer receives or is promised significant advantage or reward…for doing something that he is under a duty to do anyway, that he is under a duty not to do, for exercising legitimate discretion for improper reasons and for employing illegal means to achieve approved goals.” Barker and Wells as cited in Palmer (1992:104) offer a similar definition, “Police corruption is any prescribed act which involves the misuse of the officer’s official position for actual or expected material reward or gain.” (For a more detailed explanation of corruption, see Ivkovic 2003:595). As a part of their job, police are given a number of rights and powers, such as the ability to exercise discretion.
Reaching in the wrong direction or failing to comply promptly with a police order could result in physical force or even death. Officer to Officer * Verbal communication between officers is very important to inform other officers of information that has already been learned at the scene of a crime. This saves time as help arrives to have the officers communicate sometimes by radio to gather all known
If the responsibilities were limited in the community it would result in more chaos and more crime, and people would no longer seek police assistance. Agencies at the local level represent the largest number of police officers and include municipal police, county sheriff’s department, county police, coroner and a medical examiner, special district police (Walker & Katz, 2011). City police departments are the most complex division of law enforcement because the functions that officers perform vary. The primary responsibility of city police officers is protecting and serving the people. City police officers are responsible for maintaining order, responding to emergency calls, and dealing with violence, and serious crime.